Advice wanted for motorized blinds

[Chris Cope]

I've just moved into my new house. My wife and I are looking
into getting wooden horizontal blinds in some of the rooms.
I want to slowly get into X10, so I would like these blinds to
be motorized and X10 controllable, or at least IR controllable,
which I can then interface into X10.

So I'd like to hear people's experiences with any custom blind
makers that integrate the motor into the design. I don't like the
add-on units that are visable and require batteries or a wall
plug-in. I definately want the motor integrated into the design.

Thanks.

--
Chris Cope
Pinpoint Solutions
Boulder, Colorado
mailto:chr...@ppsol.com

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[Matt]

I am facing the same situation. Bali makes blinds with a built-in motor
design, sold at Home Depot. Tilt ONLY. It adds $50-80 per blind. The
samples in the store seemed kind of noisy to me, though. It is
completely built into the headrail, runs for a year or more on the
batteries in the headrail. It is controlled by an IR remote.

Hunter-Douglas makes a motorized LIFT for a couple of their pleated
shade lines - seem to be pretty quiet. Their web site does not show
motors for regular blinds, but a local dealer quoted me Hunter-Douglas
mini-blinds with motorized tilt. The motor option added $150 to EACH
blind. Ouch. Haven't ordered them yet.

Matt Lintula
Control Your Home, Inc.
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[Jon Finke]

I just installed a set of "Autovue" motorized celluar blinds (Bali - Ordered
via home depot). These take 6 AA cells in the headrail and are supposed to
last (batteries that is) for a year or so of normal use.

They don't "sound" as good as the Hunter Douglas, but they also cost a lot
less. The motor option cost about $45, and another $25 for 1 remote (I got
3 sets of blinds). These blinds go up and down (it doesn't make sense to
tilt cellular blinds).

Some observations after about a week or so of use:

1) The blinds all use the same IR remote control. Press the down button,
and they start going down. Press it again and they stop. Here is the
problem - press the down button and two of the three start going down. So
press it again, and the third one starts down and one of the others (or
both) stops. So press it again, the third stops.... Can get a little
strange....

2) It looks easy to install new batteries, even after the blinds are up.
However, I think I may need to take them down to get the OLD batteries out.
I will let you know in a year.. There is an optional external power adapter
available.

3) There is a little sensor module on the front of the headrail, about 1x2".
It has a manual push button on it, as well as the IR sensor. The Hunter
Douglass has this built in, the Bali does not. There is an "extension"
available for this module which can be useful if space is tight at the
headrail, or something blocks the sensor. (I should have gotten this...)

4) There is an optional "Sun Sensor" to automatically close the blinds in
the daytime and raise them at night. This plugs in to end of the headrail.
(I did not get this option.)

Has anyone figured out the pin-outs for either of these sensors? I would
really like to use a contact closure to control these instead of yet
another remote control.

I wish I had made better provisions for installing these when I redid the
room (like conduit to the tops of the windows so I could hide power packs
and stuff like that.)

Chris Cope wrote in message <7nqojb$d4f$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...